The record of an interview with Lord Wolseley, published in
the current number of the Review of Reviews, contains a curious statement on the part of the soldier. He believes that the Chinese are the coming race, and that they will over- run the world the moment a great General or law-giver arises among them. For three hundred years the Chinese have been ruled by " the simple method of having all the more active, capable, and progressive heads shorn off by the Tartars." No one of more than average intelligence is permitted to exist, and the Government is on one side an organised system of massacre. When Commissioner Leh was asked whether it was true that he had beheaded sixty thousand men in three years, his answer was : " Oh, surely more than that !" Some day, however, a new Chinese Moses will arise and resist. The people, who are quite fearless, will then, Lord Wolseley thinks, adopt the profession of arms, hurl themselves on Russia, and sweep over her, India, and the Continent of Europe. The English, the Americans, and the Aus- tralians will have to rally for a desperate conflict, pro. bably in Western Asia, which will be a veritable battle of Armageddon. Such prophecies are, of course, of small practical use ; but we agree that a very little might set the Chinese moving, and that her millions, once let loose, could no more be stopped than a stream of lava. Lord Wolseley is all for keeping on good terms with the Chinese, and so are we ; but, at the same time, we do not forget that the Roman Emperors who tried to conciliate the Graths, fared no better than those who defied them.
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